As a professional photographer, you must face all sorts of obstacles. But the highest hurdles tend to be those you put in your own way. It’s not easy to be a professional photographer.
It never has been. It never will be. Technology, which has promised to ease the job of the photographer by lowering the bar to entry into the industry, has also made it more difficult to make a living once inside.
Economic factors outside of the photography industry drive changes within it. And many of the shifts in our careers are, as much as we’d like to deny it, beyond our control. But there are a few things that are still within our control.
And we are still running a race that can be won. There’s no way we can stop the world from slinging arrows in our direction. But there are a few unforced errors common to almost all photographers that we should do our best to avoid.
Photography is a strange business to be in. In most business startups, you start with a certain level of fixed costs, factor in variable costs, then identify your breakeven point and revenue targets accordingly. Running a photography business is much the same.
The notable difference, however, is that in a photography business, or just about any creative field, revenue can vary wildly. If you are a company that manufactures widgets and you have contracts with factory clients who buy X number of widgets per month, then you have an easily identifiable revenue number you can expect each month and can plan expenses accordin.